Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Ten Ton Hammer: From your official website, it looks like Ether Saga Online uses a basic class-based system. How does the pet system work into that? Do pets change depending on your class? Or can anyone have any type of pet?

There are four monster types that players can capture.

Craig: I’ll try to bridge all of those questions together. Right now there are four monster types that players can capture. We will eventually be opening that up to more monster types that you can capture.

That said, whenever you get a new monster, that creature has random statistics. One of those statistics is called attitude, which is broken down into normal, fierce, calm and bright. Each pet acts differently depending on the type of attitude they have. If they’re fierce, they are a front line fighter type of creature. They’re more melee oriented, while bright types are healing type pets.

If you’re a tank, you might want a bright type pet to heal you while you’re fighting. But if you’re the conjurer class, you probably want a pet that can tank a mob for you.

Ten Ton Hammer: So if you’re in the later levels of the game and want to specialize even further into your class, you might opt for a pet that adds extra bonuses to your character on top of what you already do. Is that a good way to think about it?

Craig: Yes.

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you talk about the Fuse system a little bit more? Is it something that’s based off of a timer? Are players only going to be merged with their pets for limited amounts of time?

Craig: There’s no timer on the fused pet system.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there a drawback to the system?

Craig: If you’re Fused with a pet and don’t have another pet on the field, your pet doesn’t gain any experience, so that could be a drawback. However, when you have an active pet on the field and fuse with another pet, you have the option to split EXP between the two pets.  So a Fused pet can receive anywhere from 0-100% of the Pet’s share of EXP. Other than putting another pet at risk with the fusing, there are no real disadvantages to the system. The game tries to encourage you to level up multiple pets for the melding system and monster advantage system.

But there aren’t any penalties to Fusing with your pet.

Ten Ton Hammer: So pets can level on their own? Do they automatically gain new skills and abilities? Or will players need to go to vendors to upgrade their pets?

Craig: Pets will gain one skill on their own, but you can also go to a trainer in town and learn new skills for that pet based on their attitude statistic. For instance, fierce pets might gain an ability that boosts their attack power or something like that versus a bright attitude gaining healing spells and things like that.

Pets have a faster leveling curve than the player. It’s much faster, in fact. I’ve been playing a character on the closed beta; I’m level 25 right now and I have two pets that are both level 26. They level up much faster than the player character, and that’s basically to use with the pet melding system.

Ten Ton Hammer: How many pets can a player have at a time?

Craig: You can have one out and active on the field, but you can keep as many as you want in your inventory slots. There isn’t a stable that you can put your pets in like Blizzard has put in WoW. Assuming you have space for it, you can own every single pet in the game.